All Wado Karate Forum

T. Kimura wrote:I honestly don't think function even exists. Form is the being of karate. At the very least form and function are the same but I think form subsumes everything. To say form and function are the same is really too simplistic. My teacher used to talk about form and feeling, but even that makes no sense, really. There is only form but even form yields to execution. Form is everything which is why I like the kanji we use for kata.

Hi TK,

I think it is a matter of how far each practitioner's understanding of the wado ryu extends. In dealing with homo sapiens there has to be a time for simple and the simplistic in the process of wado ryu where one needs to recognise the difference between form and function and the execution of its function for learning to take place. Understanding is a lengthy business and enlightenment even longer so there has to be a time where form is being taught and a time when its function is being explored also. To say function doesn't even exist and yet talk about its execution in the same breath is one view that perhaps will dismiss the fundamental value of the Shu Ha Ri process. Enzan no metsuke is a very sage maxim but not everyone will see the far mountain in the same way.

oneya